I believe many congregations had one, if not 90 % of the congregations I attended. There seemed to ALWAYS be one elder that dominated over the other elders and incredibly - in spite of the arrangement being called a " body of elders " many times it seemed that one elder would arise and take control over the other elders. The other elders would roll over and bow essentially to these power elders. Granted there were " presiding overseers " true- but when the body of elders arrangement first came into play in 1972 - for a few years the presiding overseer would rotate with each year giving other brothers the chance to share the load of the P.O. responsibilities. This, in my opinion, kept one man from dominating and seizing ultimate power and control over the other elders. I'm not sure what year they STOPPED the rotating P.O. position, but after they stopped it - it created a situation where one man would be the presiding overseer and he STAYED presiding overseer . I think this led some to look to this one man as " the leader " to run things. And it led to an abuse of power.
At least it appeared that way in the congregations I was in. I saw a lot of abuse of power by not only P.O.'s but other prominent elders committing injustice by appointing only their friends to elders or MS positions. In doing this they really were emulating the example of the WT society . If you read " Crisis of Conscience " Ray Franz mentions that not only C.T. Russell, but Rutherford and Knorr both had dominant control over what was done for years in the organization. And it WAS NOT a govrning body in ANY sense of the word for many years. Not until 1975 did the governing body finally take a vote to share some of the power and you know which men were the only 2 GB members to vote against the share of power ? Nathan Knorr and Fred Franz - the then president and vice president of the WT society. Go figure.
So the point I'm making is the elders who dominate others in congrgations, whether wittingly, or unknowingly are really just imitating what they've learned from the topdogs in the WT society. The abuse of power permeates from the top of the WT organization down to and through the congregation levels to the elders. Then JW men abuse their power towards wives who frustrated take it out on JW children. Just a theory I have. So what experiences did you notice with " top dog " elders dominating other elders or even publishers in the congregations ? I look forward to your comments ! Peace out to all, Mr. Flipper